Rename
military installations? It seems pointless to me (if not frightingly
reminiscent of the playbooks of the worst tyrannies in history), to
think that history can be repudiated or repealed...it...well...it
happened, and can't be "unhappened." But,
I was thinking about the whole idea, and...It might not be such a bad idea, but not for the reasons you think
I
was always aware of the Confederate officers after which many army
posts were named. (not all are generals...see Fort Bliss, though LTC
Bliss' service in Mexico predates the American Civil War). It struck
me as just a bit odd; weren't there enough Union (or US Army of other
eras) Generals to name them after? I realized, of course, that these
bases are located in the deep south, and at the time they were
established, the "War of the Rebellion" was not as removed from
contemporary memory as Vietnam is from ours; locating something in
the deep south and calling it "Fort Grant," just wouldn't
do.
Many
army installations are named for Union (and United States) officers,
of course. In addition to LTC William Bliss, named above, there's
Fort Dix, Fort Ord, Fort Leonard Wood (General Wood was 5 years old
when the Civil War ended). Fort Carson for Gen. Christopher Houston
(Kit) Carson, a Civil War brevet Brigadier General, but far better
known for scouting the west (and suppressing the Navaho, Apache,
Kiowa, and Comanche tribes by destroying their food sources. I
suppose there will be an effort to change that one.)
In
any case, I was more struck by the fact that some of these
installations are named after BAD (not immoral, but stupid,
ineffective) generals than I was by whether they were of the North or
South in our Civil War.
I
was once stationed at Ft. McClellan, Alabama, so "Little Mac"
quickly comes to mind. The Union commander was so inept (at all
except camp drill, that is), that I suppose it's not surprising he is
memorialized in the deep south. He probably did more to extend the
life of the Confederacy than Gen. Robert E. Lee. So, we'll let that
one slide as an appropriate "the joke's on you," by some
unreconstructed rebel in the US Army hierarchy in 1917.
The
real head-scratcher is Fort Bragg (though perhaps the same
thinking--by a Yankee this time--as for Ft. McClellan might be in
play). Even Bragg's "victories" -- Perryville, Stones
River, Chickamauga--demonstrate his incompetence, an ability to turn
a victory into something less by indecision, stubbornness, and
inability to work with his subordinates. Again and again, that
"turning away" at the critical moment infuriated his
subordinates, who lobbied for his removal. If that wasn't enough, his
personality alone made him the least-liked (some say "most hated") commander,
North or South--pig-headed, argumentative...in a word, a complete
jerk, so much so that even his modern apologists refer to his "staggering lack
of tact." Only a close friendship with Confederate President
Jefferson Davis kept him in command of an army until a disasterous
defeat at Chattanooga.
Bragg's
last command was a Corps at the Battle of Bentonville, North Carolina
(William Tecumsah Sherman v. Joseph E. Johnston), one of the last
engagements by armies of the Civil War. Sherman's victory there
ensured the linkup of his army with that of U.S. Grant, making the surrender soon after at Appomattox inevitable.
